Oral Answers to Questions

Jamie Reed Excerpts

Tuesday 27th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jamie Reed (Copeland) (Lab)]

When I last asked the Minister from the Dispatch Box about the loss of 3,500 nursing posts, he told the House that that was “factually incorrect”. He was right, and I apologise: the actual figure, published last week, is 4,096. In what will surely be one of the Secretary of State’s final outings in his current post, before he is reshuffled to where he can do no further harm, will he tell the House how many of those nursing posts would have been secured by the £500 million spending cut he agreed with the Treasury in last week’s Budget?

[Paul Burstow]

Well, if the question is as put, the answer is none.